Pakistan plane crash: full investigation promised

Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority says the ill-fated Bhoja Air plane was locked into the instrument landing system when it suddenly "went down, into a dive."

4:39PM BST 21 Apr 2012

The Bhoja Air flight from Karachi, came down in fields near a village on the outskirts of the capital on Friday evening, killing all 127 people onboard, in the country's second major fatal air crash in less than two years.

It hit the ground next to the village of Hussainabad at 6.40pm, four miles short of the airport runway, three minutes after losing contact with air traffic controllers, he told a press conference in Islamabad.

Earlier leaks of the civil aviation authority’s initial investigation, submitted to the interior ministry, reported the pilot had issued a mayday call after a fire in one of its fuel tanks caused him to lose control of the aircraft.

The plane had accelerated to 300 miles per hour and exploded at 1,500 feet, the leaked findings said.

Mr Yousafzai said it was “too early to rule out any cause” for the crash.

He said investigators would probe the owner of Bhoja Airlines, Farooq Bhoja, and all civil aviation officials who cleared the flight for take-off from Karachi.

Mr Bhoja has been banned from leaving the country and placed in protective custody.

Post mortem examinations have been carried out on the victims, and their bodies handed over to relatives in Islamabad and Karachi so they could be buried quickly, as per the Muslim custom.